Tonight I am taking a look at where my desire to write came from. I do not remember a time when I did not love to read, but writing seemed a near impossible task when I first started.
I have always been that person, even as a child, that would see someone on the street or in the store and automatically give them a back-story, normally a very exciting one. I still see leaves swirling in the breeze and think “magic” or smell the rich dark earth and dream up stories with mushrooms and fairies.These things live inside me but they are not what started me on the road to writing.
To really understand that I will have to tell you a terrible timeline.
It took more than three years to write The Hierophant’s Bridge. That is an abnormally long time spent writing a book but this book was not ever meant to be published. This story was for me in the beginning. It was a passive way to escape terrible personal tragedies that were taking place at the time.
July 2011 – My mother fatally overdosed on pain medicine, I sat down to write. I had no idea where it would lead but I let it flow with no outline or intention. I stopped a couple of months in as I once again became busy with life and accepted my loss.
October 2012 – My daughter, 17 at the time, had a fight with her boyfriend and shot herself in the head. She survived. I spent the next year helping her learn to walk, talk, eat and live again and when she slept, I was writing like a mad woman. Again I stopped but this time there was what I would come to call my “kinda sorta outline”. The book had taken shape and now had a purpose that existed outside of me.
December 2013 – We moved from Texas to SC. This was a big move and I am still happy that we did it. After we bought the new house life had settled down and I wanted to end the beginning of this story with a clear head and a happy heart, so very different from the way that it started. I sat down at my computer and did just that.
October 2014 – I followed through with publishing The Hierophant’s Bridge after sharing it with those around me and being convinced to do so (it didn’t take much prodding, I was excited.) I also began writing the second book to follow this one, The Elders. At the same time I took on another project in the horror genre with The Renovation (This book is geared more for adults).
These were my external and internal influences.
At the end of the day, I think each of us starts to write for very different reasons but we keep at it because it is a passion, a love affair with the what if’s, the maybe’s and the absolutely fantastic.That timeline posted above, those things were big ticket items on the grocery list of my life, but they are forever gone. What is not gone is the product of the fire that was started in my mind. If no one ever buys a copy of my book, it is ok, I know it is there as do my children and family and each and every one of them knows what it means to me when I see that title. There is always, always something to be happy about, always.
Ok, enough soul searching for one night. Here is hoping you are all having a wonderful evening!
Much Love
KJ
Eternal Butterfly Kisses 